Former Bridgeport man headed to jail for possessing child porn

COURTHOUSE — A former Bridgeport man is headed to jail after he admitted to possessing child pornography on his home computer.

Eric Blahut, 33, formerly of the 300 block of Grove Street, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to five-to-23 months in the county jail after he pleaded guilty to charges of sexual abuse of children possessing child pornography in connection with incidents that occurred between September 2010 and March 2011.

President Judge William J. Furber Jr. also ordered Blahut, who most recently resided in the 1100 block of Bridle Path Drive in Quakertown, Bucks County, to complete five years’ probation after he’s paroled, meaning Blahut will be under court supervision for a total of nearly seven years. The judge said Blahut is prohibited from having contact with minors. Blahut can have access to the Internet only for work purposes and he had to forfeit his personal computer to authorities.

As a result of his conviction, Blahut will have to report his address to state police for at least 10 years in order to comply with Pennsylvania’s Megan’s Law.

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An investigation of Blahut began in September 2010 when an undercover county detective who was conducting Internet searches for people trading in child pornography located a computer that contained “files of interest,” according to the arrest affidavit. Detectives, armed with a subpoena to obtain the user’s Internet subscriber information from the Internet provider, determined the computer was linked to the Grove Street address.

On March 3, 2011, authorities used a warrant to search the Bridgeport residence and seized a laptop computer that belonged to Blahut, who lived at the residence at that time, according to the criminal complaint.

A forensic examination of the computer uncovered 41 files of suspected child pornography, including 15 photographs and 26 video files, according to the criminal complaint filed by county Detective Mary Anders. Many of the files had been previously identified as child pornography by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, according to court documents.